Each music instrument posses its individual characteristics, not only in term of sound quality, but also in terms of the skill set a music performer has to acquire in order to play the instrument. Thus, the interface of harpsichords, pianos, keyboards, and synthesizers, or the interface of wind and string instruments require different skill sets for playing a given instrument. Electronic media have opened a vast field of possibilities for creating and performing music. With relative ease, they allow a composer and/or performer to create new sounds and/or alter recorded music in a variety of ways.
However, music instruments have remained unmodified for centuries, and their designs have been maintained and integrated into the new music instruments that incorporate electronic and digital technologies. For example, synthesizers inherit the same performance interface as the piano and its forerunners, such as the harpsichord. Variations or breakthrough areas have been focused on timbristic generation sources and not on the interpretation manner or the way the user produces music with the electronic device.
Furthermore, certain performance techniques require even more time consuming practice in order to be mastered. The latter is evident with playing arpeggios. Playing arpeggio consists of playing the tones of a chord in sequence, rather than simultaneously.
The invention of the present disclosure may be a member of an even more specific instrument family, such as the musical electronic systems and/or devices known as Arpeggiators (a.k.a. “arp”).
Munch Jr et al. in U.S. Pat. No. 3,725,562, titled “Arpeggio system for electronic Organ”, Bunger U.S. Pat. No. 3,842,182, titled “Arpeggio System”, and U.S. Pat. No. 4,137,809, titled “Arpeggio system for electronic organs”, make reference to method of an electronic nature aimed at intervening in the sound output processes searching the automatic arpeggio performance for each chord tone played (preferably in octaves, i.e., creating tonal intervals, 12 half steps above or below the chord tone played). The implementation of such methods aims towards its integration in musical devices such as electronic organs.
Under the same logic as Bunger, Kappes in U.S. Pat. No. 4,279,187, titled “Digital arpeggio system for electronic musical instrument”, describes the automatic generation of chord tones in upper octaves which corresponds to the manual performance of the user or interpreter.
Gannon in European patent (No. EP 0978117), titled “Automatic improvisation system and method”, describes the improvisation captures carried out by the professional musicians which are integrated into a MIDI device, and then, in accordance with the rules of the system, are usually integrated in a deferred manner as a contribution to the creative process of the user.
Mancini and Huber, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,616,547, Oct. 14, 1986, titled “Improviser circuit and technique for electronic musical instrument”, describe a circuit that executes automatic improvisations generated through the use of randomly generated musical variations of rhythmical and tonal nature.
As its common axis, all the above references share the development of methods and systems for performing arpeggios. As a rule, the focus is put on octaves arpeggios and always applying automatic procedures. In other words, the interpretation of the music by the user is not relevant to the generation of these music sequences: the inventions themselves produce the arpeggios.
As a consequence of the aforementioned, the state of the art given in the above references, the generation of Arpeggios is provided automatically in a black box without the creative participation of the user, without participation of the user in the performance, in other words, the user is a mere spectator of those processes.
The current invention, however, offers an ergonometric, digital and portable musical device which includes a Central Processing Unit (CPU) plus a firmware so as to provide both well-known and originals scale coding, and a procedure for free interpreting concerning progression, chord tones replication, harmony, and rhythm through the use of a MIDI protocol.